Patience and timing!

My most favorite message from the Masters in Many Lives, Many Masters –

Patience and timing…everything comes when it must come. A life cannot be rushed, cannot be worked on a schedule as so many people want it to be. We must accept what comes to us at a given time, and not ask for more. But life is endless, so we never die; we were never really born. We just pass through different phases. There is no end. Humans have many dimensions. But time is not as we see time, but rather in lessons that are learned. Everything will be clear to you in time.

I would say this message is also the most appropriate for me as it is for most of us.

Soothe my soul

After reading all that woman lambasting by Mr. Chanakya, I had to read something that would soothe my soul and remind me that those attitudes do not matter because the soul is genderless. We are here to fulfill a purpose and our experiences are helping us get to that purpose. The body we take is just an instrument,  a way of getting to where we need to be. Over the years I have read many books that talk about this concept, and coming from India, where reincarnation is a way of life my daily life is fairly imbibed with these beliefs. But all along this is what they were - beliefs. Since there is no tangible proof of what happens to us when we die, we derive all sorts of solace from reading scriptures of the wise written centuries ago. That all changed for me when I stumbled upon Many Lives, Many Masters.

For the record, I have read this book at least 3 times but every time I read I am fascinated and still get goose bumps re-reading the messages from the Masters. The book is about a true story of a woman, Catherine, who was suffering from severe mental trauma – fear of drowning, fear of swallowing pills, troubled relationship with parents, you name it. She lived so petrified of the dark and close spaces that she could barely sleep and often slept in the closet to alleviate her fears. Finally, after much coaxing from colleagues she went to see Dr. Brian Weiss, who used all sorts of traditional therapy on her but nothing worked. As almost a last resort, he tried regression therapy which started her amazing journey to her past lives where she recounted 86 of her past lives with vivid details. Once she started doing that not only her symptoms improved but she started living much more joyously.

During these sessions, she also started transmitting messages from the in-between state. Messages that were being sent by highly evolved beings, called Masters. Yes, this is a true story. And as I said, every time I read it I get goose bumps knowing that this life is not it, we live forever and will always be around our loved ones. Our purpose is to be God like through knowledge. We are here to learn and when we become God like we can choose whether to come back and help others. So helping, loving, kindness is not the stuff of only men like Gandhi and MLK. It is for you and me, indeed a path to redemption. Nirvana is waiting for us. The choice is ours – whether we want to get caught up in this temporary world or chase after ultimate salvation.

Chanakya Niti contd...

Perhaps the best sutra so far-

Flowers have fragrance, oilseeds have oil, wood has fire, milk has butter and cane has sugar. In a similar way, a soul exists in the body and is invisible. It is a mystery that only can be understood through faith and logic.

What I cannot understand though is his constant contradiction to his own thoughts. From the above, we can safely conclude that the man was spiritual and believed in Nirvana (which also he mentions a few times in the book) but at the same times he placed a lot of importance on money, not so much on material things though. His contradiction with money is also interesting – at some places he calls money the "driving force" but at the same time says we shouldn't dwell too much on the material world and be happy with whatever income, food and wife we have.

So is he trying to tell us have a balance of money and spirituality? Perhaps.

The one thing I did like about his sutras is the constant emphasis on education and learning.  I made clear his dislike with morons yesterday but he also goes as far as saying that an uneducated person is a wasted life and people (by people he means men) should always strive for a higher standard of learning and knowledge. Also, knowledge increases when you spread it so consider it your duty to learn and share.

Yes, if he is talking to me, a woman, then I agree with him. But he isn’t! Because he believes women are like cattle who have to be obedient. Another irksome thought – a woman without a husband is a shameful waste.

I’m almost done with his sutras and might pick up another short book to conclude the week with, something I have read at least 3 times so far but every time I read it I learn something new.

Once I finish Chanakya Niti, the suspense shall be divulged!

Chanakya-Niti

For a very long time I have wanted to read Chanakya Niti, so the other day when I saw the book lying around at my friend’s I borrowed it immediately. This week, I decided to give it a shot. Most people don’t know who Chanakya was and what he did so here is a history lesson on him.

Chanakya was an adviser to the Mauryan empire in India and its chief architect around 293 BCE (very, very long time ago). He was extremely brilliant and very knowledgeable not only of the scriptures but also in the socio-sciences, economics, politics, etc. He was called as the Machiavelli of India but later generations in India say that comparison was unfair and he was really much smarter and brilliant.

Rumor has it that he was also very ugly and as a result when presented at court, the King threw him out and laughed at his ugliness. At that time, he vowed to destroy the King and his line which due to his shrewdness he succeeded in doing. Chanakya wrote 2 books -- Arthashastra and Neetishastra which is also known as Chanakya Niti. The Arthashastra discusses monetary and fiscal policies, welfare, international relations, and war strategies in detail. Neetishastra is a treatise on the ideal way of life, and shows Chanakya's in-depth study of the Indian way of life. Chanakya also developed Neeti-Sutras (aphorisms - pithy sentences) that tell people how they should behave. Of these well-known 455 sutras, about 216 refer to raaja-neeti (the do's and don'ts of running a kingdom).

So far the book has failed to impress. There are few aphorisms that sound neat but a lot of them so far have only aggravated me. Chanakya’s attitude on women is Stone Age at best. He writes how women should be obedient to their husband, not be allowed out of the house, not make independent decisions etc, all of which do not apply to the world now. His thoughts on how to raise children can raise some eyebrows. He advocates beating children until the age of 16 if they do not listen to their parents, something that happens in India past the age of 16.

He talks a lot about sons (as in the male child) and how a family is barren without one.

He cannot tolerate morons and makes clear his low threshold for idiots. There, I agree with him.

As I said earlier, most of the sutras are pretty obvious but perhaps for the time period he lived in they weren’t as obvious. And perhaps that explains his attitude towards women, who at that time and sadly even now in many parts of the world, were seen as material objects used to enhance a man’s side and not as humans with feelings, emotions and thoughts. If you keep that idea in mind throughout while reading the book, the aggravation subsides.

Very few sutras stood out so far – here are a couple:

In this world nothing lasts forever. Money comes and then goes. Life goes. Soul goes. Youth goes. The only thing that stays firm is faith.

A human comes into this world alone. Alone does he get the reward or punishment for good deeds or sins respectively. And alone he departs for heavenly abode.

The one thing that did surprise me are his thoughts on religion, how advanced they were. He advocated leaving a religion and not partaking in any activity with that religion if it did not preach kindness and love. These thoughts are pretty revolutionary at any time and anyone preaching these thoughts in 293 BCE or 2010 AD is bound to be a target by fanatics.

Makes me wonder if he was only behind on women’s rights then? Most of his thoughts apply to the masses today so he could be called a man born way ahead of his time. The one thing I cannot get out of my head is, say for instance he was born now, in this era. What would he think about women and their rights? Not that it matters but really it bothers me. If more people like Chanakya, who were considered geniuses, advocated for women’s rights since 293 BCE, India would be at a different place with their women. Maybe the world would be too.

Wishful thinking? I don’t think so.

Festivities today

OK, I finished Our Kind of Traitor and one piece of advice – don’t read this book. There was a slight turn of events in the end, maybe he thought oh oh the book is almost over and I need to do something exciting before its done and added a little something for readers to say, ah I didn’t expect that. Nope, not exciting, actually it is nothing but constant conversations between people and long, gruesome description of people and their backgrounds.

Moving on to exciting things, today is Diwali. If you don’t know what it is, go Google it. I am bursting with way too much joy to explain what it is. But whatever you do, make sure you light a lamp/candle anything tonight to celebrate the festival of lights.

Happy Diwali and a prosperous New Year! May this Diwali bring you light, peace and joy!

Back from the self-imposed exile

Hollow, ungratifying and frustrating are the 3 ways I can best describe my past week. All the reasons why I was away without a conclusion and an intro to the next book.  I haven’t railed off B-52 yet. The Bluest Eye is done and the next book has been started. Our Kind of Traitor by John le Carre.

But first concluding words on The Bluest Eye. I think I know why it didn’t move but only touch the readers. It started off in all directions, doing all things, talking about the different characters and their background, history but the whole time I was waiting on Pecola to ask for blue eyes and blond hair. After all, that’s what the book was about! So finally Pecola’s wish is thrown to the audience but it wasn’t grown. I wasn’t convinced she wanted those eyes so badly, more than anything else. Then, there is the other issue (no, I won’t spoil it for any potential readers). Psst, people who have read it, you know, the one towards the end that the book concludes with? That’s what I am referring to. She barely mentioned it. It was just a blip in the entire book and could have been totally ignored amongst her trance of words. Now, I am not telling Toni Morrison how to write, far from it, but had she expanded on that issue and Pecola’s fascination with blue eyes more it would have been a moving book.

I have to say though, the words are lyrical. She writes so well the prose becomes poetry, simply exuberant!

Alright moving on, Our Kind of Traitor – the only reason I picked up this book is The Constant Gardener. I didn’t read the book but saw the movie with Rachel Weisz and thought it was brilliant; actually I didn’t even know there was such a book. So if the movie was so good, the book had to be better, right? Well, Our Kind of Traitor, 55 pages in, is making me drool. It better pick up or I am looking to abandon it.

So what’s it about? The book is about a young British couple, vacationing in Antigua (tennis vacation) and come across some Russian mafioso-type-honcho, Dima. For some reason, the British service is very interested in this Dima guy so on the way back to Britain the couple (Perry & what’s her name) are extensively being interrogated by the MI-5 or someone who works in those spooky places.

As I said, so far boring very boring. I am forcing myself to read it and it better pick up. It does promise some adventure and politics between Russia, City of London and the British service so I will go on for a wee bit longer. We’ll see how it goes.